


Lost Dog: If Found, Please Return To The Underworld

by Sheridoodle



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Bi Will, Cerberus is best boy, Fluffy as hell, Gay Nico, Hades is a huge dork, Hades is best dad, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I finished this at 3 am and I'm both proud and scared of myself, M/M, Persephone is a nerd, Tags are hard guys I'm new, Wow these two are so gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-16 01:58:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16075961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheridoodle/pseuds/Sheridoodle
Summary: PSHHHHHHThat was the sound that no poor soul would ever want to hear. The sound that caused panic, turmoil, and heartbreak.The sound of a tire deflating.Will Solace couldn’t believe it. Just his luck to have a flat tire in the middle of the desert of california, and his hotel was miles and miles away from where he was now. Now he has to dig through his loaded trunk for the spare tire, which he barely knew how to put on.Will sighed and opened his trunk, only to find…3 black puppies?





	Lost Dog: If Found, Please Return To The Underworld

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in one go and finished it at three am. I'm both proud and scared of myself and my adrenaline. I hope you enjoy the soft gays.

**PSHHHHHH**

That was the sound that no poor soul would ever want to hear. The sound that caused panic, turmoil, and heartbreak.

The sound of a tire deflating.

“No, no, no, NO! Not now!” Will Solace frantically put his car in park and ran out to the back, only to find that -correct to his suspicions- his back left tire was flat.

He couldn’t believe it. Just his luck to have a flat tire in the middle of the desert of california, and his hotel was miles and miles away from where he was now. Now he has to dig through his loaded trunk for the spare tire, which he barely knew how to put on.

Will sighed and opened his trunk, only to find…

3 black puppies?

He confusedly lifted up the 3’rd dog and found that, as a matter of fact, it was only one dog, but it- he tilted it upwards a bit and nodded- no, _he_ had three heads.

Will saw a collar at the base of the middle dog’s neck that read:

**CERBERUS**

**ONE HECK OF A BIG BOI**

**IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO UNDERWORLD**

**(666)-666-6666**

He got a good chuckle from the second line. That must have been Persephone’s doing. She was the better at modern-trends of the underworldly couple, most likely because she was in the mortal world 6 months of the year, and Hades stayed cooped up in the underworld.

Cerberus wasn’t as big as he usually was, but Will just assumed it was an effect of being outside of the underworld and exposed to mortal mists. He’d probably grow back to his normal huge size once he was back in the underworld. Kind of like one of those “grows-in-water” toys on steroids.

Will pulled out his monster-proof phone (courtesy of Leo) with one hand while holding the small cerberus in the other. He dialed the number on the good boy’s collar and held the phone up to his ear. He expected Hades to answer, and to just ask him why the hell he was calling.  
He was dead wrong.

A younger, but still slightly gravely voice picked up. It called into the distance before answering him. The voice sounded really familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“ _I GOT IT, PERSEPHONE!-_ Hi, thank you for calling the Underworld. Hades can’t take your call right now, but I’m his son, Nico di Angelo. How may I help you?”

Oh! Nico!

“Nico! It’s great to hear your voice at a time like this!” Will beamed, and he really hoped that Nico couldn’t hear his heartbeat from the other side of the line.

“Will? H-How did you manage to get the underworld number? And what do you mean ‘at a time like this?’” Nico sounded genuinely surprised, confused, concerned, and still excited all at the same time. How he managed to do that, Will had no idea.

“Well, funny story…. Cerberus was in my trunk, and I’m pretty sure he’s lost, so I called the number on his collar.” Will giggled and Cerberus’ first head barked excitedly

“Oh my gods! I can’t believe you found him! Asphodel admissions have been such a pain without him standing guard. Thank you so much, Will. Where are you right now? I can just come to you.” Nico spoke quickly, and Will could hear rustling on the other line, as if someone was putting on a jacket.

“Well…” Will looked all around him. There wasn’t a road sign in sight. And, not to mention, with his flat tire, he couldn’t exactly go anywhere else. “I kind of have a flat tire in the middle of the southern-cali desert…”

Nico chuckled gently, humming in thought. “Just, stay where you are. I’ll be right there.”

“What- How- What do you me-” Before Will could finish his sentence, Nico had hung up. So, following the Hades boy’s directions, he stood still right where he was, petting Cerberus to pass the time.

A few minutes later, a disheveled looking Nico di Angelo appeared from the shadows right in front of Will. He stumbled forward and grasped onto Will’s shoulders to keep himself standing. Will gasped and placed Cerberus back in the trunk so he could help Nico stand. He tried to ignore his burning face and racing heart in favour of helping.

“Idiot! You know that shadow travel drains you, especially when you travel to and from the underworld!.. You didn’t have to do this for me, I could have just changed the tire and driven to DOA. It can’t be that far.” Will rambled, fussing over Nico.

“Solace, I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me or anything.” Nico chuckled and stood up after regaining his senses.

Will sputtered out a strangled line of sounds.

“O-Of course I have to worry about you, di Angelo! You’re the definition of impulsive, and someone like you needs someone to worry about them so they don’t die of power overexertion.” Will humphed and crossed his arms, trying to send a mean glare in Nico’s direction. Nico only smiled at that.

“Aw, so you care about me! How cute.” Nico winked and walked up to Will’s trunk, picking up Cerberus.

Will was left red faced at that. How could Nico be so casual about something like this, and be cute while doing it! _‘Whatever, now isn’t the time for gay thoughts.’_ Will mentally told himself, even though he already knew he was way too late to stop them.

“Cerberus, this is the second time this month you’ve meandered from your post! Bad boy!” Nico spoke in a firm voice as he pointed a finger at the dog and glared.

Will walked up next to Nico and pet Cerberus’ head, looking at Nico with a tiny smile on his face.

“You don’t have to be so mean to him. I mean, maybe he runs away because he’s lonely or bored. Instead of scolding him, maybe try to find a solution to make sure he doesn’t run away again.”

“Huh… That’s actually a really good idea. I’ll tell Dad and Persephone about that when I get back. Speaking of getting back to places, I should probably help you with your car. How about I take you back to the palace and get someone to fix it up later, hm?” Nico took Will’s hand and gave him the most persuasive look he had to offer. He was really trying here.

“Fine, but can you use Cerberus to help you shadow travel us? It’d suck if it was my fault you got overexerted.” Will replied hesitantly, hyper-aware of Nico’s hand in his.

Nico sighed, giving Will a reluctant smile. “Sure, only because I know you’d make me stay in the infirmary if I didn’t.”

Will smiled back and braced himself for the travel. He knew shadow travel was draining for Nico and Cerberus, but he also knew that it was even more draining for Apollo kids like him. Being in such a vast expanse of darkness for so long drained the light out of him, and being the child of the sun god, that was a terrible thing.

Will closed his eyes tight and felt them whizzing fast through… somewhere. When he opened his eyes again, the three of them were in the underworld. He was dizzy as all hell, leaning forward and grabbing onto Nico’s shoulders to regain himself. He felt Nico’s lanky hands gently grip his shoulders, also assisting in keeping Will upright. When he opened his eyes and looked up, he was surprised to see that Nico was perfectly fine and adorably smiling down at Will. They made eye contact for a few moments before they both looked away, quite flustered.

Will reluctantly let go of Nico and stood up straight (ha, yeah right), wiping his sweaty palms off on his pants. Still avoiding Nico’s gaze in hopes that it would make him less flustered, he cleared his throat.

“So, uh, we should probably get this big boy back to Hades’ place, yeah?” Will stuttered out, looking at Cerberus, who had grown back to his normal size now that he was back in the underworld, just as Will had suspected. He hesitantly looked back at Nico and saw that he was slightly red faced as well, nodding quickly.

“Y-Yeah, that would be the best idea. Come on, I’ll take you there.” He took Will’s hand in his without a thought and started leading him to the Palace of Hades. Will was stunned at Nico’s bravery to hold his hand around all these dead folks that they were currently whizzing past. He found it adorably admirable, also seeing that Nico’s ears, peeking out from behind his long, thick black hair, were a dark shade of red. He was glad to know that he wasn’t the only one flustered- or maybe embarassed, on Nico’s part- by this experience.

It had taken the pair, as well as the big black dog(s?) following them, around 10 minutes of a silent walk through the fields of asphodel and the front lawn portion or Persephone’s garden to get to the front doors of the castle-esque building. Nico walked into the front door with Will and Cerberus without a second thought, like it was his home or something (well, it kind of was), although Will was slightly nervous. He knew the Lord of the Dead could be intimidating, but he only saw him once, during the battle of manhattan in full battle armour, so he didn’t know exactly how intimidating he could be in person.

The three (5? It was hard for Will to decide whether he should count all three of Cerberus’ heads or not) walked into Hades’ throne room to see the God sitting on his throne deep in thought. Nico cleared his throat and Hades visibly jumped, startled. Will wanted to laugh, but held it back in fear of being destroyed by deadly wrath.

“Nico what did I say about being so sneaky and ninja-y while entering my throne room! You scared the shi- oh my gods you found Cerberus!?” Hades started his sentence a bit frazzled, but instantly became surprised, and even perhaps overjoyed, when he saw his big dog (Will _finally_ decided to refer to Cerberus as one being) that’s been missing for a few days standing right behind his son and the other demigod that happened to be there too.

“Well, I didn’t find him, exactly. Will found him in the trunk of his car and gave me a call. He deserves the credit for not instantly panicking.” Nico gestured to Will when he mentioned his name, proudly smiling at the fact that his friend wasn’t a complete wuss.

“Oh? Will, Son of Apollo, isn’t it? Well, thank you so much for finding our dog. Persephone was really starting to get stressed, and honestly, so was I. I’ll have to scold him-” Will cut Hades off.

“No, you don’t have to!- Er, uhm, my apologies for interrupting, Lord Hades, but maybe scolding him wouldn’t be the best thing to do? I mean, it didn’t work the first time he ran off, right? So maybe try finding the source of the problem and fixing it. Like, maybe he’s bored or lonely and just needs someone to play with him every morning so he won’t run off. Do any of you play with him at all?” Will spoke with increasing confidence as he went on, settling more into his doctor voice than his casual ‘I have a huge gay crush on your son’ voice.

“Huh, you make a good point, Will. And, to answer your question, no. None of us actually play with Cerberus, but maybe we should. I really wouldn’t want him to be lonely. Perhaps Nico, Persephone, and I could go out there in the mornings and all play a game of catch with him. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Hades hummed, really taking Will’s point into deep consideration, and that made Will break into a smile. Because of that sentence, and the concern in the Lord’s voice at the possibility of his dog’s loneliness, Will wasn’t intimidated anymore. He knew that under that hard-shelled exterior, Hades was just a big casual family-loving dork who really cared for his giant three-headed doggo born from hellfire.

Will looked over at Nico to see him smiling at his dad as well. He seemed to really like the prospect of playing catch with his dad, step-mom, and big dog.

“Maybe you could join us on some mornings too, Will.” Nico spoke with a whimsical tone, looking over at Will, still smiling. Will, once again, went red faced at one of Nico’s comments.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude on any family time, Neeks. Really, I was just handing out the idea to you guys-” Will stammered, really loving the idea of being domestic with Nico’s family, but really nervous to admit it.

“No, no, you should join us one day, Will. It’ll be… fun. Trust me, we don’t bite.” Hades said with a small chuckle. He not-so-subtly winked at Nico, making the small boy blush. ' _Huh, that was odd…_ ' Will thought.

“ _WeLL_ dad it’s been great but I gotta get Will back to camp okay bye!” Nico spoke without taking a breath and nervously chuckled, taking Will by the hand and pulling him out of the throne room, leaving Cerberus and Hades behind. Will could hear Hades hysterically laughing in the distance and he smiled at how happy the king of the underworld could be.

Nico nervously looked up at Will and smiled. “Ready to go back to camp?”

“Wait, but, my car-” Will started, but Nico protested.

“We can take care of that later. First, let’s just get you back. You’ve probably been at Camp Jupiter for a while.” Will furrowed his eyebrows, confused.

“Yeah I actually was, but how did you know I was at Camp Jupiter?” He asked and Nico let out a small sound that was a bit like a squeak.

“Well, I, uh… I always communicate with Reyna and she told me that you were there... Oh gods, that sounds so much more creepy when I say it aloud but I swear there’s a valid reason!-” Will cut Nico’s rambling off with a laugh.

“I get it, Neeks, let’s just get back to camp.” Will smiled at Nico and he awkwardly smiled back.

“Yeah, okay.” Nico sighed with relief that Will cut him off and took his hand, took a deep breath and shadow traveled both of them back to Camp Half-Blood.

When they arrived, Nico looked exhausted, and almost like he was going to pass out. Will was slowly growing used to the shadow traveling, so he wasn’t as dizzy for quite as long this time, which was good because he needed to be able to carry the now wiped out Nico back to his cabin.

Will picked Nico up bridal style, which pulled a small groan of protest out of the boy at first, but he soon grew to enjoy his tired body being carried around camp, especially by the strong-armed, soft boy of his dreams. Will smiled at Nico’s adorable shenanigans. _Goodness, he was even cuter when he was sleepy._

They arrived at Nico’s cabin after a few minutes and Will set him down on the front step, which made Nico whine again, also in protest.

Will thought Nico was going to just wave, say goodnight, and leave to go rest, but he was sorely mistaken.

Instead, Nico stood up on his tippy toes and gave Will a light, quick kiss on the lips and went back down with a small, lopsided smile on his face.

“G’night Will… Thanks for finding our dog today.” Nico said with a cute little yawn, waved, and entered his cabin to rest.

Will was left standing on the front steps of Cabin 13 with a red face and a starstruck grin. He didn’t quite expect _that_ to happen, but it definitely was not unwelcome by any means.

Perhaps Will would be doing things for Nico more often if it earned him that reward.


End file.
